Users report fewer cravings, less irritability
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Former tobacco smokers find e-cigarettes less addictive than traditional cigarettes, new research finds.
Even though they "smoke" e-cigarettes as often as they did regular cigarettes, thousands of ex-smokers said they have fewer cravings and are less likely to feel impulsive and irritable over their need to smoke, researchers reported.
"The pattern was really very clear. The score was significantly less for e-cig use than for tobacco use," said lead researcher Jonathan Foulds, a professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine. "E-cig users feel less addicted."
E-cigarettes have become more popular during the past five years, the researchers said in background information. These battery-powered devices deliver nicotine and flavorings through inhaled vapor, and some people say they help smokers give up traditional cigarettes. While they contain far fewer cancer-causing and toxic substances than cigarettes, their long-term health effects are unknown.
For this study, recently published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, the researchers used an online survey to assess more than 3,600 e-cig users' previous dependence on cigarettes and their current dependence on e-cigarettes.
The ex-smokers, all of whom now use e-cigarettes, reported their smoking is about the same. They have about 24 sessions a day with e-cigarettes, and used to smoke about 24 cigarettes daily.
However, their dependence on e-cigarettes is much different:
- They are more likely to wait longer for their first smoke of the day, 45 minutes on average compared to 27 minutes when they used cigarettes.
- Two out of five would wake in the middle of the night to smoke a cigarette, but only about 7 percent continued to do so with e-cigarettes.
- About one-third had strong cravings to use their e-cigarettes, compared with more than nine out of 10 when they smoked cigarettes.
- About one-quarter reported being irritable or nervous when they can't use e-cigarettes, versus more than 90 percent who recalled feeling that way as cigarette smokers.
There are a couple of reasons why e-cigarettes might create less addiction to nicotine, Foulds said.
source : E-Cigarettes Less Addictive Than Regular Cigarettes, Study Finds
